The Other 49 States of America

A Pinot Noir from NY

You would be forgiven, if you visited a UK supermarket, for thinking that California was the only state of America to produce wine. Even if you visit a specialist wine retailer, you are unlikely to be offered the wines of more than two states. In fact all 50 states of the USA have wineries with North Dakota being the last to join the club in 2002. The wineries in many of these states concentrate on making wine out of fruit and vegetables other than grapes, and very often the wine never leaves the state, but nevertheless there are many places all over the USA making good wine out of grapes nowadays. If you click on this link, Fifty States of Wine, you will find an article from Time magazine by Joel Stein who describes tasting wines from all fifty states and he only found six of these undrinkable and twelve bad. That leaves 32 states producing drinkable wine. If you look in Hugh Johnson’s excellent annual Pocket Wine Book, you will find he describes the wines of about two dozen states. So why can’t we buy them over here?

An excellent selection of wines to taste in Richmond

The answer is that you can in many cases but need to go on-line to the very specialist wine merchants. Yesterday evening, we attended a very interesting wine tasting of American craft wines organised by David Swaddle of tasting Sessions in Richmond upon Thames. He had brought along Sue Chambers who has a specialist wine company importing the wines of Long Island situated in New York State. We tasted seven very interesting boutique style wines all available in the UK. So what did we taste and where can you get them:

VIRGINIA
I was particularly taken by three wines from Virginia which is an east coast state just below Washington DC now producing many excellent wines. These wines were produced by a winery set up be Gianni Zonin in 1976.

Barboursville Vineyards, Viognier Reserve, 2009. £23.50 from Famous Wines.
This 100% Viognier has no oak and is also not very sweet. Quite different from many Viogniers as it is not particularly full-bodied. Big notes of citrus and very much to my liking.

Barboursville Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009. about £20 from Famous Wines.
Lovely bouquet, big blackcurrant flavour, some good tannins, this is a lovely Cab that would match well with roast lamb.

Barboursville Vineyards, Cabernet Franc, 2008, about £25 from Famous Wines
Nice vanilla notes on the nose, the taste is initially slightly sweet with berry, currants and cherry fruit flavours. Another lovely wine.

OREGON
I have been a fan of Oregon Pinot Noirs for some time and have also tasted wines and visited a winery in Washington state, so I already knew that the Pacific North West produced lovely wines.

FIresteed, Pinot Gris, 2008, about £15 from Good Wine Shop
A nice pineapple aroma, this was another very citrus flavoured wine with nice acidity and a good length. One of the nicest Pinot Gris/Grigios I have tasted in a while.

Albarino Wine Crystal

CALIFORNIA
In the UK we often get the big brand Californian wines so it was nice to taste a more artisanal product. This was from a biodynamic producer.

Bonny Doon Vineyard, Ca’ del Solo, Albarino, 2008, about £16.25 from Good Wine Shop.
This had a nice green/gold colour and not too much acidity except on the finish. You needed to really move it around your mouth to get the best from this wine. Very pleasant again.

NEW YORK
Funnily enough, I had been in New York state the week before and tasted some wines from the Finger Lakes region. I had been impressed how some of the Pinot Noirs from the area were improving. On this evening, however, we were concentrating on the wines of Long Island. I have to admit, I didn’t know they produced wines on Long Island!

Channing Daughters, Sauvignon Blanc, Mudd West Vineyard, 2010. £16.99 from Wine Equals Friends.
Very clear appearance, lime and lemon on the nose, it is a bigger fatter wine than most Sauvignon Blancs. Nice lemony taste.

The Lenz Winery, Estate Selection Merlot, 2002. £21.99 from Wine Equals Friends.
This was the hit of the evening with most people at the tasting, proving that Merlots are coming back in fashion having been hit sideways by the film of that name. It had a good bouquet of cherries and plums and a big warming taste. This is certainly a wine you should consider trying and buying. Sue is just setting up her web site but you should be able to get to it soon on www.wineequalsfriends.com. Currently you can visit her facebook page with a similar name.

So my conclusion from this excellent tasting is to try some more wines from some more US states. I would also recommend a visit to one of the Tasting Sessions evenings in Richmond.  Why not surprise the guests at your next wine evening or dinner party by serving them craft wines from Long Island and Virginia – be ahead of the trend.